Memories of the Past
by DreamerOnDrugs
Summary: Commander Lynn Shepard is send out to find the Assassin, Thane Krios. But when she finally finds him they recognized each other as someone from their past, someone who'd helped her getting back up her feet after her loss on Mindoir. FemShep/Thane
1. Broken

**Broken **

The night was dark, cold. It didn't affect the people in here though. Unlike the Presidium, there was no artificial day-night cycle in the Wards. As a consequence of this, commercial activity rarely ceases, and residents work an rest according to personal need. But this night was different, silent. Some would say it was too silent. But he didn't. He liked silence, made the job easier. He watched as the last man finally went home, trough the street, to his home, to his family. He waited until he was sure no one could hear or see him before he left his hiding place. He'd stayed in the shadows, moving quickly. Still no one would have heard him. Because he wouldn't let them. He didn't want to be heard. Didn't want to be seen. So it didn't happen. A few times he had to wait. And every time he made sure no one could see him as they passed by. And so he went, as a knife in the dark, to his destination.

It didn't took him long to reach it. He gazed over to the other end of the street. Numerous skyscrapers rose from the superstructure, sealed against vacuum, as the breathable atmosphere in the Wards is only maintained to a height of approximately seven meters. He began to walk faster. He almost ran. But still, he didn't made a sound. He entered one of the buildings. If the people in the hallway had even heard him entering at all, they hide that damn well. One of them looked at the door, she thought she'd heard it open. But he was already gone. It was going all way too easy for him. He liked to be challenged, and this job certainly was not a challenge. With a small smile on his mouth he was thinking about taking the elevator, but in the end he didn't. He liked being challenged, but he was not a fool. The man moved across the upper floor of the hallway up into the ventilation systems. He knew where he had to go, and slowly moved towards it. He also knew that the ventilation systems were getting tighter and soon he wouldn't be able to move any further. So when the stairs where visible beneath him he exited the systems and quickly moved up.

He had finally reached his floor. Outside the window he saw the other arms of the Citadel, it was a long way down. Looking up to the ceiling he saw that it was made from big metal plates. That could work in his average. He pulled himself up and shove one of the plates backwards, making enough room for him to go through. When the plate was back in its original place he crawl towards his target. There was a small access hole for maintenance, so he could get above the room he needed to be. There was another wall that split the room in two, again with access for maintenance. But this time he needed to bypass security to get through it. He'd never been a good technician and concluded that he was satisfied with his current location. With care he shoved another metal plate away so he could oversee the room. He noticed there was no one in there so he had to wait. Nothing else to do, he over thought his mission again.

_The Batarian man walked around, nervous. "So you're the famous Mr. Krios?" he said. I don't reply, I just nod. The man continued; "Well Drell here is the problem. People are dying. __**My**__ people are dying. And you know why?" I know but I don't say a thing. "Some terrorist is killing them!" the man is frustrated, he throws things across the room. "fifteen, FIFTEEN, all dead. Just by one shot in the head. In each en everyone of them. And I lost them in just THREE days!" I'm slightly impressed, killing fifteen people in three days, all with one head shot takes years of training. He doesn't know. "I know this terrorist is after me, I'm the leader of this group. Untill now he has only killed the Batarians that joined last month, let's keep it that way. Their former group leader, Eluam, stays in an hotel in the lower wards. The Batarians who died still saw him as their leader, they didn't know I was. I want you to kill Eluam before he betrays me." I am surprised. "Killing people still innocent is not my job," I reply, "If you have trouble in you're organization you have to handle it yourself." The man smiles. "I think you'd find __**his**__ death justified. I'm certain he and his group where part of the group that attacked the human colony one year ago. They have ether killed or enslaved everyone in the entire population." My face hardened, the man didn't noticed. "Consider it done." The man is pleased with himself, I can see. "It's a win-win situation." He says as I turn around and walk to the door. "Oh, and Mr. Krios?" I stop. "If you'd happen to run into the terrorist I was talking about, you'd better kill him too."_

Thane shook up from his memories when he heard the door open. He moves, making himself ready to jump down. He can't see them yet but he can hear three man walking in, all Batarian. Two of them look suspicious across the room, moving into eyesight, before the other one closes and locks the door. You can never be too careful. If only they knew. Thane can see the one who locked the door now. But they are still too far away for him to attack. He just has to be patient. There was no time for being patient, but he didn't knew that. One second there was nothing. The next he heard the sound of an metal plate hitting one of the Batarians on the head. At the same time a woman jumped down from the ceiling, from behind the wall and door he didn't bother to bypass. Thane is a bit shocked, he never had competition before. Especially not with an assassination. He jumped down, weapon pulled, but didn't fire it yet. He was curious about how this was going to end. Neither the woman nor the Batarians noticed him.

The Batarians where still shocked about her entry and the woman, wel she was busy finishing of the first who'd just managed to throw the plate of his head. She shoot her pistol, a single bullet forced into his head. There was no sound, she must had muted her weapon. One of the still remaining Batarians, he assumed it was Eluam, moved backwards. Closer to Thane. They still hadn't notice him. The woman was already fighting the next, he didn't had a weapon and she had putted hers away so it was a hand-to-hand. Well, not exactly. The Batarian tried really hard to hit and kick her in any way but every time he thought he would, she smoothly dodged and moved away from his fists or ducked under his kicks. She held her hands behind her back while doing this, it almost looked like she was playing with him. Teasing him. In the mean time Eluam had managed to move further away without the woman noticed it. Too bad for him, he bumped straight into Thane who easily tackled him to the ground and returned his eyes to the fight. The Batarian, who still hadn't manage to hit the woman, looked tired. Unlike the woman, who made him think of an Krogan on blood rage. The Batarian stopped his attacks and bow over to catch his breath. The woman looked at him like he was an filthy animal. She tilted her head, "Bored now," She said with mild voice as her hands and arms began to glow with dark energy. With just one movement the Batarian was lifted into the air. He looked like he was going to choke and puke at the same time, but before he could do any of these things he was taken down by a head shot. Thane had moved away from Eluam and did his best to not be in the woman's way. He'd already saw there was more going on here then simple terrorism.

The woman moved quickly, in a few moments she was next Eluam who was begging for his life. She kneeled next to him "Remember me?" She asked with bitter-sweet voice. Eluam studied her, so did Thane. She was, pretty... you know... for a human. She had a thin nose, full lips painted gold/brown, high cheekbones and big eyes which were bright blue, the fact that her mascara, eye shadow and eyeliner where black made her eyes even brighter blue. She wore something that reminded him strongly to an Asari commando exept for the fact the boots had heels and it wasn't brown as with the commando's but dark green, almost black. Her long, blond hair reached to her hips and she had a pale skin, almost white.

Eluam was** really** panicking now, "No.. No.. I've n-n-never seen you b-b-before in my ent-ire life!" He stuttered. Dark energy made her light up. "LIAR!" She shouted and threw him across the room with her biotics. He slammed against the wall. "Look at me! LOOK AT ME!" She shouted, pointing towards her face as she walked towards Eluam. "AND TELL ME I DON'T LOOK FAMILIAR!" Eluam's eyes widened. "Oh, shit..." he tried to crawl back but he ended up with his back on the wall, the words had sad where nothing more than a whisper but they both heard it. "See that wasn't so hard?" again kneeling next to him, again talking with her sweet voice. "You where a leader of bad people, Eluam. You know that?" Eluam tried to say something but she slapped him with the back of her hand. "LET ME FINISH!" she shouted, she paused, closed her eyes, and returned to her sweet voice. "But it's good you recognized me, I would be offended if you didn't... It only has been **one** year." Thane's eyes widened as he began to realize it. "You've killed all of my friends... They were **good** people, didn't hurt a fly." Her tone was so sweet... She was broken because of her loss. "And Jasmine and Rowena, Kali, Lindsey and Yan..." She tilted her head. "You've took them with you, but you may not do such thing... They where **my** sisters and he was **my** brother. You don't own them..." She stood up. "YOU DON'T OWN THEM" She screamed, throwing Eluam against the opposite wall. Again, walking right behind, kneeling in front of him to bring her eyes somewhat at the same height as his four. "I was just sixteen and you've took them all away you've killed them!" _she looks older than she is, must be the make-up_ thought Thane "You've even killed Owen, he was nice. Learnt me stuff. They used to say he was the best spy in the Galaxy... Well, I guess he can't wear that title anymore can he? I learn everything I can from him... Except my biotic abilities of course I've learnt them myse-" She was interrupted by a terrifying scream from the other side of the room. One of the Batarians she shot screamed like he was in intense pain.

The other followed soon after him. "Oh Yeah, **THAT's** my new toy." She said with a smile. "the bullets are poisonous, they can't do damage though, they just for applying the poison into organs. It's a really nasty one, killing all your cells one by one... Just like you did to everyone I know. Everyone that mattered..." The screaming stopped. Thane walked over to the Batarians and snapped their necks in case they weren't death yet. He made sure the girl didn't noticed it. "You've killed Daddy, haven't you? He used to wear a white shirt but the dark red spot is growing, he tries to say something to me, but the only thing that comes out is blood. It's in my hair and clothes. Then our dear Eluam here walks in, shooting him trough his head." The girl focused back on him, "Did you had fun killing him? Watching his blood got splashed all over me?" Her face hardened "WELL DID YOU?" this time she threw him to the middle of the room, against the desk that was standing there. "You laughed after it, so I guess you did..." This time she stood still in front of him. She took a new thermal clip from the belt pouch on her waist and loaded her pistol with it. "You'd still remember what you did to my **mother**? What you made me watch?" The girl pressed her hand on her ears. "I still hear her scream, the scream of death. But after tonight she has no reason to scream anymore." She took the gun and pressed it against his forehead. "The same thing YOU did to MY mother? Its gonna happen to you." Eluam's eyes grew big, he begged her not to do it. She didn't hear it. She didn't feel. She just... pulled the trigger.

* * *

So, I have dyslexia and English is not my first language. Don't be too hard on me.. I'm already writhing the next chapter first I wanted it right after this one as one chapter but this one got longer than I expected ^,^


	2. Why We Fight

**Why We Fight**

Right after she shot, she took a few steps back. First there didn't happen anything at all, then Eluam started screaming. The scream hurted their ears, from the inside out Eluam started to burn. He was set on fire, just like her mom. And just like her, he screamed until he was nothing more than a pile of ash. After that, silence. The girl was standing with her back towards him. He wasn't even sure if she knew he was there at all. Minutes went by, still no words. Then suddenly the girl fell on her knees. She buried her head in her hands. Shoulders shaking, she was crying.

Thane wasn't sure what to do. Carefully he walked towards her but stopped as soon as she began to speak, "What do you want?" her tone was normal, apart from the sniffing. She turned her head to look at Thane. Tears mixed with make-up drew black lines over her face. When there came no answer she continued. "If you're here for those bastards over there..." she looked over to the two batarians, "You're a bit late. But if you're here for me," she stood up, spread her hands. "Well, take your best shot." He didn't move. "Please, just kill me..." tears filled her eyes, "So I would be back with _them_." She couldn't take it anymore. She fell, pulled her legs towards her chest where she wrapped her arms around them, hiding her face from him. Thane putted his hand on her shoulder trying to calm her. It worked a bit. The shoulders stopped shaking and she began to breath normally again. "It just hurts _so_ much. They tore everyone away from me. Everyone I knew. Everyone I cared about. It's like they tore my heart out." He felt sorry for the girl, she had suffered great loss. It hurted him to see someone like that. After a couple of minutes the girl stood up again. She didn't want to cry anymore, as she whipped the tears from her face she gave him a weak smile.

"So, why **are** you here?"

"I had a job here."

The girl shook her head "To kill me or them?" she kicked the pile of dust, spreading it across the room.

"Both" he admitted.

"So you're some kind of bounty hunter?"

"I'm an Assassin."

"There is a difference?" she lifted an eyebrow to him. "So what you only kill the bad people?"

"Yes"

"You don't talk much."

Thane smiled but didn't answer. The girl that practically told him she wanted to die a few moments ago, the same girl that killed three Batarians in cold blood a few minutes before that questioned **him** for being not much of a people person.

"So you were supposed to assassinate these things over here **and** me?"

Thane nodded.

"Well, you didn't do a very good job" she concluded. "A little girl beaten you."

"I'm not used to competition" he smiled again "I didn't noticed you."

"Of course you didn't I didn't want you to notice me" she walked towards the window, turning her back towards him. "Owen trained me to be a spy, back on Mindor" she smiled as he went to stand next to her. "My father hated it. He wanted me to become a farmer, just like him. But Owen saw I had potential. On my tenth birthday he said he would train me. He was so sure that one day I would be even better than him. He was right. But I didn't let him know that I knew. When I became thirteen he knew it to. So he taught me the things he couldn't manage to pull off. The only thing I never got was the techno-stuff." From the corner of his eye he saw her smile. "He said that I was hopeless, I couldn't even manage to bypass a cell phone from the beginning of the twenty-first century... I still can't." she looked at him. "When I started to use my biotic powers instead he knew he couldn't teach me anything more. I was better than him, way better." She looked away, to her feet. "He gave me this suit, he made it for me. After that he started to teach me to shoot a gun. First a pistol, then shotguns and submachine guns, after that snipers. Somehow my parents knew but they didn't do anything about it. They just wanted to see me happy. And Owen was like a grand-father to me" Her face darkened. "When the batarians came we tried to fly. But there were too many. They locked us into our house, then they took my brothers and sisters. I tried to fight them. Killed one of them with my biotics. They didn't like that. Me and my parents were locked back in the house. But my siblings were taken away. When they came back Eluam was with them. He paralyzed me with some kind of dart. Then he shot my dad. I had to watch, I couldn't scream or help him. I just stood there. Watch him die." He saw tears forming into her eyes, but she blinked them away. "After he collapsed, Eluam shoot my mom. They laughed when they saw her burn. I still couldn't move. One of them walked to me with a lage knife in his hand. He said he was the brother of the batarian I killed. He cut open my arms, legs, chest and cheeks." Thane studied her, he saw light scars on her cheeks, one big one across her eyebrow. "I felt the pain but couldn't do anything about it. Then they left. I thought I was safe. Then I smelled the fire. The house was on fire. Somehow I managed to escape. But I fainted. When I woke up, I was on the medical bay from a ship. The man who'd saved me said I was the only one left." she paused.

"It was not your fault they died"

"I know that. But it still feels that way... After I recovered they send me to some pre-military boarding school." She sighed, "When they saw what I could pull off with my biotics and my weapon skills and how I could sneak up to someone without anyone notice it they were scared from me. I ran away when I heard Eluam and his friends where here. I knew that they didn't knew where my friends and siblings where just like I knew my parents didn't want me to do this. But I wanted to make sure that my parents and Owen and anyone who died on Mindoir could rest in peace." They both stayed quiet for a while, looking through the window. Beneath them the people in the wards began their daily activities. "I don't know you're name." the girl said suddenly.

"You can call me Sere."

She smiled. "You can call me Laila."

Silence

"It's not your real name."

"I know, but I also know that Sere is not yours." She looked at him with a smile, a happy one. "Do you have family, Sere?" He smiled back. "I've a wife and son." "Do you see them often?" His smile faded, "Not as often as I would like." They both turned when they heard the door opening. A single krogan walked in, weapon pulled. He looked surprised as he saw them. "Where is Eluam?" he said with a low, but load voice. The girl who named herself Laila had a grin on her face. "Over there, over there, and up there." She said as she pointed to a few random places in the room. The krogan noticed the dust. "Oh well, that saves me some work." he muttered when he walked out.

"We should go, before anyone else enters."

She nodded and walked to the place in the ceiling where she had came down. "Well Sere, guess I see you around." He nodded, with some help of her biotics she jumped through the hole in the ceiling. "Goodbye." He said as he took off.

* * *

**Four years later.**

Laila sighed heavily, "Well T'halui, you could just tell me what I want." The batarian mercenary spit at her, "I'LL NEVER TELL YOU WHERE THEY ARE." She rolled her eyes as she threw him across the room. "You know I really hate torturing people. But sometimes I make exceptions." her fist came down on his nose, crushing it. Which was actually quite impressing, if you've ever seen a batarian nose... She'd heard footsteps, familiar ones. They stopped a few meters behind her. "Hi, Sere. How's the kid?" She asked as she threw the mercenary against the wall next him. When there came no answer she looked at him. He looked hurted, the same way she had looked four years ago.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't supposed to be such a difficult question." She gazed over to the mercenary, "You need him?"

"Yes, I do." T'halui looked up as he heard Thane's voice. He almost ran towards her on his knees. "Please! I tell you everything! But please don't leave me here alone with **him**." The mercenary was obviously terrified. "Please!" he begged.

"**Where** are they?"

"Ok, I don't know exactly where but I know who does. You need to ask Forvan, he's somewhere in the Terminus systems. He hates humans but maybe you can convince him to talk."

"Great, Terminus Systems. Can't go there. How ironic." She looked at Thane, he still hadn't moved. Batarian was really panicking now. "How 'bout our agreement? You've got to protect me from him!"

"Sere?" he looked up. "I never break my word." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath an continued, "He's all yours." Thane nodded.

"What? No don't leave me! You promised!"

"You know what T'halui? If he's after you," she pointed towards Thane, "you must **really** deserve it." She left, something told her that she didn't want to see what Thane was going to do to him.

A few hours later Thane came out of the house. Liara sat on a crate next to the door. Except the fact she had put her hair in a ponytail she looked exactly the same as he'd remembered. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked with a worried look in her eyes.

"No, I don't." Sere started walking away from her.

"Who did they kill?"

He stopped, his eyes where wet.

"My wife."

* * *

The second chapter is up! I wrote it two times, didn't really like it the first time. I hope you guys like it. The next chapter is gong to be during Mass Effect 2, I'll promise n,n.


	3. No More Masks

**No More Masks**

"COMMANDER?!"

"Yea, we've already tried the yelling part" Joker rolled his eyes, "but thanks for nothing."

"At least I'm doing **something**."

"Ehm, I fly the ship here Miranda, that counts for something."

"Maybe she's just asleep." Suggested Kelly as she gazed over to the commander who was leaning on the railing, back turned towards them, eyes on the galaxy map. She has been like this for the past thirty minutes, they tried to get her attention for the past eight.

Joker slowly shook his head, "Her eyes are open."

"I'll bet she'd wake up if we throw something at her."

"Jack, on Cerberus we follow orders given by our Commanders, we don't kill them when they're taking a nap."

"Back off, cheerleader. I do what I want, and if I want to throw somethi-"

"There won't be **any** throwing of **anything** towards me"

"And... She's back." Joker announced with a grin on his face. "Good job everyone." Jack sniffed, turned around and took the elevator to Engineering. Miranda waited for the next one before she went to her office.

"So Lynn, picked our next destination?" she gave him a confused look. "You've been staring to the galaxy map for more than half an hour."

"Really?" she lifted her eyebrows. "I was... thinking."

"How **are** you going to choose our next destination?"

She looked at the Yeoman. "Hmm, I think I close my eyes, spin around and point." Joker chuckled as he walked towards the bridge. A few minutes after he sat down he heard the commander behind him. "Joker?" he looked up. "Which one is the closest?" He understood her question immediately, "Setting course to Illium, ETA in about an hour."

With a relieved feeling Lynn sat down in the co-pilot chair. She hated to be locked up for a long time, even in a ship as big as this one. She hated it almost as much as all the military protocol. As soon as she came aboard the Normandy SR-2 she'd been teaching Joker and later Garrus and Tali to call her Lynn, not Commandar, not Shepard, just Lynn. It felt like they were the only one left that cared about her, and she wanted them to see her as their friend not as their superior. But to everyone else on the crew she was Commander Shepard, the only Colonist left from Mindoir, Sole Survivor from the thresher maw attack on Akuze, Savior of the Citadel.

* * *

"I have already told you this Shepard, there is no time for personal affairs."

"But I've helped you with your sister!"

"I know and I'm glad you helped me, but you can't go on missions by yourself without any backup."

"I'm faster on my own and if I take you guys with me you'd get us all caught!"

"Like you're so subtle yourself."

"You don't_ know_ anything about me!"

"I've put you together! I know more about you then you do! And besides that, you nuked an entire facility!"

"I didn't had any other options!"

"You blew another one up with Jack!"

"I need to win the trust of the crew you've said it yourse-"

"Commander?" Jocker's voice cracked over the intercom, "We're arriving in ten minutes you'd better suit up, I'll tell Garrus and Tali to do the same." She gave Miranda another furious look before she dashed out the office to the elevator. Miranda let out a sigh of enlightment, "Saved by the bell."

* * *

"Shepard, get down!" Lynn got behind cover while Garrus released a shot. She felt the bullet flying just above her head and, a few moments after that, she heard it penetrating the armor from one of the mercs.

"To close..." She muttered as she created a mass effect field between her palms and threw it towards the six remaining mercenaries, smiling when it successfully hurled five of them off the building. Next to her Tali cried; "Go for the optics, Chikktika! Go for the optics!" After a few electrical shocks from the drone the last mercenary collapsed.

"Good work team."

"Team?" Garrus smirked, "You've took most of them out yourself, Miranda must have really pissed you off."

"I know," She looked up to the sky and let out a sigh, "the worst of it all is that I somewhere know she's right."

"You don't mean that right? Why should we all get time to solve our issues and you don't?"

"Because I need to solve my issues alone I guess. No one is really qualified to give me backup with this. And the first part of it is mostly chasing ghosts." Her eyes went from the fading stars to the building in front of them, "I guess we should keep going."

"Right behind you." He said as he followed her into the office.

Nassana turned around when she heard the door opening behind her. The asari looked shocked when she saw the leader of the group stepping forward, like her guards she scared away from her "Shepard? But... you're dead."

Lynn raised her eyebrows "No I'm not," she tilted her head as she added, "I feel fine."

Tali let out a small giggle but Nassana continued, "And now you're here to kill me" she murmured.

Lynn shrugged, "Maybe I just missed you."

"Screw you, Shepard."

"Charming as ever."

"I'm sure you find this all very ironic. First you take care of my sister, and now you're here for me." She rolled her eyes and turned around. The guards near her looked like they were ready to flee in terror, but Nassana paid no attention to them. Her eyes where focused on the sunrise, she knew it would probably be the last time she would see the sun at all. The asari took a deep breath and turned around. "Well, you made it this far. Now what?"

"I'm not an assassin Nassana. But I'm looking for one."

She snapped "So, You break in here and decimate my security, just to find the person who is here to kill me?! What are you playing at, Shepard?" Lynn could hear the panic in her voice but paid no attention to it. Nassana killed and ruined so many family's even from her employees, so she couldn't feel sorry for her.

One of the guards almost dropped her weapon, but caught it on the last moment. With a panicked look on her face she tried to look to all entrances of the room at once, failing miserably. "What?" the more her guards where panicking, the more Nassana was.

"I heard something."

Nassana's fists came down on her desk "Damn it. Check the other entrances!" She pointed to Lynn, like a teacher would point to a child who has been bad. "You... stay put-" Nassana continued, telling what she should do what she was going to do to her when she was finished dealing with this, but she didn't hear it anymore. She heard a disturbance in the sounds of the room, a subtle one, a familiar one. Only a few moments after she heard it, she saw a single drell jumping out of the ventilation systems. Three seconds after that all guards where on the ground, dead. Nassana was next, she hadn't even had time to finish her sentence. Five seconds, two bullets, four people, dead.

He slowly putted Nassana down on her desk, crossing her arms over her chest. After that, the drell folded his hands, he prayed.

Garrus felt like saying something, "Impressive. You certainly know how to make an entra-" Lynn stopped him from talking by placing a hand on his shoulder, slowly shaking her head. All three of them remained silent, waiting for the prayer to be finished.

After a few minutes the drell looked up. Lynn finally said something, "So... Thane Krios," the corner of her mouth curled up, "I knew Sere wasn't your real name."

"Just as I knew Laila wasn't yours." When he talked he slowly walked around the desk, "Your methods have changed, all this destruction... chaos." When he was standing in front of the desk, he stopped. "I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me." He looked her in the eyes "Well... here I am."

Garrus eyes where almost popping out of their sockets "Wait, Shep- Lynn you two know each other?"

"We've met before."

"A few times..."

"But how-" He was interrupted when Tali poked him in the ribs, and even with all his armor he felt enough of it to shut him up. Lynn looked back to Thane who was still standing in front of the desk. "Well, Thane I guess I need you for my mission."

"Indeed?"

"You're familiar with the Collectors?"

He turned around to face the window again, "By reputation."

"They're abducting entire human colonies now. Freedom's Progress was their handiwork."

"I see."

"We're going after them."

Thane turned around on instant, "Attacking the Collectors would require passing through the Omega 4 relay. No ship has ever returned from doing so.

She smirked "They tell me it's a suicide mission."

"A suicide mission..." He turned his head away from her, "Yes a suicide mission will do." They were standing next to each other now, watching the sunrise. After the last sentence she raised an eyebrow to him. He noticed her unspoken question and answered it, "I'm dying."

* * *

Thanks for reading! This one is a bit short, I know. But I'm already working on the next one. If your lucky I'll upload it later today... If not, well you have to wait a day or two. Oh, and by the way. I know the Normandy SR-2 doesn't has a co-pilot chair, but well in my story they made one n,n.


	4. Nightmares

**Nightmares**

_I opened my eyes "Mommy? Daddy? Where are you?" I'm trying to look around, but everything is blurry. The light in the room hurt my eyes, I need to cover them with my hands. _

_Nobody is here but I hear whispers from outside the room, on hand and feet I crawl to the door trying to hear them better, still with my eyes closed. I lay my ear against the door, desperate to hear something else, apart from the screaming. I can hear three different voices, two are male and one female. That last one talked first._

"_Maybe she doesn't remember it." _

"_She has to remember something, she's the only one left."_

"_We had to be there faster"_

"_What do we say to her?" _

_The man raised his voice, _"_You want to tell her that everyone she knew is either dead or locked in cages, taken away as animals?" The screaming in my head, mom, I can't hear anything else anymore. I'm back. Daddy collapses in front of me, covering me in his blood. Mommy set on fire, burning to the ground, screaming. They left, the house is on fire now. But I still can't move. The flames are licking my feet. The smoke is thick, when I try to breath hot air is filling my lungs, burning them from the inside out. _

"_LYNN!"_

_I turn around at the sound of my name, back on Akuze. Me and the rest of the unit are camped for the night, but suddenly the ground beneath us is shaking. Two giant.. worm like things are trying to surround us. Slaughtering everyone they see, butchering them. Before they knew what was happening to them most of the Marine's where already eaten, sliced in half or beheaded. A dark, red liquid is covering the ground as far as I can see. A giant claw comes down on my leg, perforating it. The blood flows out of the wound, the pain is unbearable. I try to cover the wound with my hands._

_Then there was silence, I'm in space. The air is escaping out of my suit. Leaving nothing left for me. My lungs are screaming for air, my whole body feels like it's on fire. I can't move my limbs anymore. I can feel my organs stop, as the blood stopped flowing. I'm trying to scream, but there is no sound._

But then there was. She woke up screaming, bathed in sweat. Breathing heavily. It took her a few moments to calm down, and a few more minutes after that before she trusted her voice enough to speak "EDI? What's the time?" She looked over to the hologram in her cabin waiting for an answer.

"It is 02:13."

Lynn let out a sigh and put on her clothes. "One whole hour of sleep, I'm making progress." She muttered while searching for her other boot. When she had finally found it she pressed the button from the elevator, after nightmare's she couldn't sleep again. The elevator opened, to her surprise there was someone in there.

"Thane?"

He looked up to her eyes. "I heard screaming."

She walked into the elevator and pressed the button that would bring her to the Crew Quarters. "I'm fine," they remained silent for some time, but the elevator was to slow to be silent one whole ride. Lynn talked first "Is there anyone else who... heard the screaming?"

"Everyone except Joker is asleep. And even if they were all awake I'll doubt that anyone would have heard you."

She let out a sigh of relief, it wouldn't be good for the crew's moral it they heard her scream every night. EDI's voice broke the silence that followed after her sigh, "Deck 3, Crew Quarters. All crew members on deck are asleep." Thane walked back to Life Support. She figured he wanted to get some sleep but he waited for her in front of the door. So she followed him into the room.

"Don't you need to sleep?"

"Don't you?" he asked when he walked to the window.

"I'm used to not getting a lot of sleep, most of the times I only sleep half an hour a day."

"I know that," he turned his head so she could see his face. "I've only been on this ship for a week but I heard you screaming every night." If it was anyone else who said that she would have been ashamed of herself, but Thane's voice wasn't judging, it sounded more like he was sorry for her. She sat down on the table, watching Thane and the stars at the same time. "You've changed since the last time we met."

"It had been ten years, well eight for me but I don't think you spent the last two years dead like me."

"Your methods have changed, you don't sneak up to people before you attack, you kill everyone if you need to, to get to whatever you want."

"I know. I don't like it either, I didn't even liked it when I was still a member of the Alliance."

"Why didn't you quit?"

She closed her eyes, "Two years after the last time we met, Akuze was in early stages of human colonization. The Alliance got a some report, they lost all contact with the pioneers team. So they sent out a group of fifty Marines to investigate an look for survivors." She sighed, "It was supposed to be my last job with the Alliance, I wanted to leave. Becoming a spy like I was trained to be. But at night when the unit camped, we found ourselves set upon by thresher maws. We didn't had the slightest idea what we were facing." She heard Thane moving around but didn't paid much attention to it. "The entire unit was slaughtered, everyone, dead. Everyone, except me. Again." She felt tears coming up, so she opened her eyes to blink them away. She saw Thane standing in front of her. "I'm sorry, I must be bothering you with all my depressing story's"

"Not at all, last time we talked I was the one who kept talking about himself."

She smirked, "Yea, because I asked you to."

"Then, maybe I should ask you about yourself." There were some signs of a smile in the corner of his face as he sat down on one of the chairs, she did the same on the other side of the table.

"So what do you want to know?"

They talked for hours, about everything that came in mind. She about her parents, siblings, friends, the attack, the military boarding school she was sent to, how she ended up with the Alliance and her missions. He about his assassinations, his training, about drell, the hannar and eventually his wife and son. When it was almost 6 a.m. Lynn stood up. "The crew is awaking soon, I think I'd better be going." She stood up and walked to the door. When it opened and she was about to leave his voice stopped her.

"Can I ask you one more question?"

"Of course, Thane."

"Why did you called yourself Laila when we first met?"

She gave him a warm smile, "It was the nickname my mother gave me, she was born on earth. Where she came from it means '*Beauty of the Night' I guess she called me that because of the spying."

"It suits you."

* * *

Lynn waited until most of the crew was awake, before she went to Crew Deck again. She took a deep breath before entering the room in front of her, "Miranda, got anytime to talk?"

"Not really Shepard, I've a whole lot of work to do."

"Well, I wasn't really asking."

"Shepard, if this is about what I think it is we both know the answer," she let out a sigh, "You can't go out alone and unprotected."

"And if I can proof that I can take care of myself?"

She raised an eyebrow "What are you suggesting?"

"Garrus told me about turian war ships, and the activities for the crew. When they need to 'blow off steam'. So I suggest a tournament, hand-to-hand, here on the Normandy."

"Shepard, I don't have time for your games."

"Everyone is tensed, we need to do something if we don't want them to tear this place apart. You saw what Jack did yourself. And if I win, I've proven that I can take every single person on the Crew. We recruit only the best so that must mean something. If I lose I stop complaining about this but when I win... You let me leave for 5 days."

Miranda thought about this for a second. The crew was really tensed, she almost lost her head in her 'disagreement' with Jack. And no way that Commander shoot-on-sight Shepard could beat the whole crew without her weapons or biotics. And she still needed to complete the full capability scan about the Commanders ability's so hand-to-hand combat too. But still... five days are a long time."You'll get two days."

"Four."

"Three, no more."

Lynn smirked, "Three it is."

* * *

"Commander, I heard about the tournament, you really think it's a good idea?" Lynn lifted her eyebrows at the talking Miss Chambers. "I mean," she continued nervously, "some of the people on your squad are capable of, you know, snapping you neck with one look."

"So am I" Watching Kelly freak out over her words was actually kinda fun, but she needed the crew on her side so she continued, "It's harmless Kelly, we are not allowed to use biotics nor weapons."

"Grunt doesn't need biotics nor weapons to split your skull in half."

Lynn looked to the ceiling, "Why is everyone on this ship underestimating me?" her tone was over dramatic, but at least Kelly didn't bother talking her out of it anymore. "Deck 5, Hangar. Crew members on deck: Jack, Grunt, Tali, Miranda, Jacob, Garrus, Thane, Zaeed, Mordin." _Everyone is already here_. "See Kelly? Everyone needs to blow off steam, I'll bet that some of the engineers and the normal crew are eager to join us too." They where, some of them joined the tournament, but most of them where betting on who was going to win.

"Hey Joker, how are the bet's? And don't act all surprised I know you're behind that."

He had a grin on his face, "Well, Grunt and Thane are really popular, especially Grunt. But you have a nice thirth place, and behind you are Jack, Zaeed, Jacob, Mordin, Miranda and Tali and the 'normal' people from the engineering deck and the CIC."

"Let the 'normal' people, like you called them, start. And I don't want them fighting against Grunt or Jack." She walked toward the circle as the fighting started. The first fight was over in about three minutes, Gabby had tackled Kenneth to the ground and kept him there the full ten seconds, which let to lots of laughter from the Normandy's crew. After she had helped him up the other fights continued. After a while she saw someone appearing in her eye corner.

"I don't see the point of it."

She recognized the low, deep voice as Thane's, "They need to blow off steam."

"You can tell anyone that. Though I don't think that's the reason _you_ are doing this." There came no answer. "Your clothes are different than I remembered."

She looked a bit confused but was glad he changed the subject "Yes, I remade the leather plates to set up this outfit and dyed them the same color, it's not the exactly the same but it's close. The real one is in an locker in the Citadel."

"Next fight: Thane versus Gabby."

Lynn let out a half smile "Be gentle. We still need her."

The corner of his mouth culled upwards as he responded, "Always."

Thane and Jacob disabled their opponents fast, without any serious injuries. Off course _they_ weren't trained fighters, just the people who programmed the ship. After that the real fights could begin. starting with Zaeed against Grunt. It wasn't much of a surprise that Zaeeds experience was nothing against Grunts muscles and the fight didn't last long, about ten minutes. The fight between Mordin and Jack lasted longer but in the end Jack won. Garrus defeated Tali without much effort, but they were both glad it was over.

"I've put you against Miranda, Lynn." The pilot smirked, "I thought you would like to kick her ass."

"Thanks Joker, I owe you one." She walked into the circle waiting for Miranda to do the same. When she did, the fight started. They circled around each other, but as she expected Miranda wasn't patient enough to wait for her to make the first move. After a few steps Miranda got bored. She moved her arm forward, trying to punch Lynn on her jaw. Lynn allowed herself a smile as she ducked under the fist, just before it hit her and grabbed Miranda's wrist. At the same time she kicked her feet away so Miranda fell on the ground, keeping her there with a boot on her chest. Ten seconds later she had won.

The whole Hangar was quiet. All visibly surprised by her fast victory, Miranda was still laying on the ground, stunned. "What?!" Lynn asked, irritated. Slowly the sound returned to the room. She helped Miranda getting back on her feet and moved back to her place. Next to her, Thane was smiling. "That looked more like the Lynn I know." She smiled back.

Thane's turn again. This time against Jack. But after a few seconds Jack was laying on her back, cursing at him. Lynn had to fight Grunt. It wasn't as bad as it sound though, how hard he tried he couldn't touch her. And after a few minutes he was laying on the ground as well. The fight between Jacob and Garrus was a bit bizarre. It took over twenty minutes and ended in a draw when they both knocked each other out. She looked at Thane, who was standing across the room. He nodded, Lynn did the same as they both stepped into the circle.

Lynn rolled away from Thane, smacking his leg out from underneath him, making him lose balance. Seizing on the moment, She rose up and tried to grab his arm. But even off balance he somehow managed to dodge her attack, and instantly tried to drive his fist into her stomach. She easily danced away from his hand, making another attack failing miserably. The fight was already taking more than fourty minutes, still neither one of them had managed to get the other on the ground for more than two seconds. They've already stopped being gentle after the first five minutes of the fight. But even when neither one of them hold back it was a close fight. Once again they were circling around each other. This time Thane made the first move. A strong arm grabbed her shoulder. But before he could force her on the ground she slipped away from him, again. They both relied on their speed in a fight, always being faster than their opponent, but this time their opponent was just as fast as they were. _Okay_, Lynn thought as another one of her attacks failed, _I guess I have to try something new. _Thane's hand went back, probably to prepare for another punch, but this time it was blocked as Lynn grabbed his hand, stopping his blow. Thane attempted to free himself but Lynn simply grabbed his other hand. _I hope this is not going to hurt him too bad. _She then jumped into the air flipping backwards and let go of Thane's hands while simultaneously kicking him in the chest. He somehow managed to grab her wrist, and they both ended up on the ground, Lynn on top.

_Her skin is so soft, warm._

_His eyes are so dark, deep._

"Congratulations Lynn," They both looked up. Joker held out his hand, which she quickly grabbed, trying to remove some inappropriate thoughts out of her mind as fast as she could. "Thanks, Joker" she said to him. Behind her she heard Thane getting back on his feet too. "Where is Miranda? I need to see her."

"She is in her office, didn't liked the fact that you'd beat her in about... thirty seconds I guess." Before he had even finished his sentence Lynn stormed off to the elevator. _If that bitch does not keep her word... _"Miranda!" She looked up from her computer screen. "Commander"

"I've won, now how about our agreement?"

"Well, You've won. Next shore leave you'll get three days off."

"What?! Next shore leave? That means I can only go to one place!"

"Shepard, You have never said you wanted to go to more than one place nor when you wanted to go. Just three days without backup. Now you can get that, at our next stop."

"You've set me up! You just wanted to do more tests on me!"

"Shepard, you have to understand that we can't let our biggest investment running around without back-up." Lynn was about to explode. Furious, she turned around and threw a ball of dark energy towards the door. With an earsplitting sound the ball went through the closed door, leaving a giant hole behind.

EDI's voice sounded through the intercom, "Commander, safety standards advise against vandalism on the Normandy."

"Thanks for mentioning that EDI." She answered as she rolled her eyes. "When Joker is back on the bridge tell him to set course to the Citadel, I need to pick up some stuff."

"As you wish, Shepard."

Lynn stepped through the hole in the door, and began to walk back to the elevator.

"Damn good work, Shepard. Maybe with this hole added to her office, the Cerberus cheerleader can finally get some air to her brains."

"Thanks, Jack." She said with a grin on her face, continuing her walk. When she was about to enter the elevator she hesitated, turned around and walked to life support. "Got anytime to talk?" Thane turned in his chair so he could watch her while he answered. "Of course Lynn, I was actually hoping you'd stop by."

"How so?" she asked when she sat down on the chair next to him.

"Do you remember when I told you about my son, Kolyat?" she nodded, "I used my contacts to trace him. He has become-- disconnected. He does what his body wills."

"What's wrong with him? Is he hurt?"

"Something happened that should not have," Thane looked like he was in pain, but still he continued, "He knows where I've been, what I've done. I don't know his reasons, but he has gone to the Citadel. He has taken a job as a hit man. I would like your help to stop him. He is-- This is not a path he should walk."

"I've already told Joker to bring us to the Citadel as soon as possible."

He nodded "Thank you, Lynn."

"No problem, Thane." she smiled to him

"I'll still have to congratulate you. You're one of the very few people that fought me and won."

"Well it wasn't a real fight, just a tournament."

"I guess so. Did Miranda gave you what you wanted?"

Her smile faded. "No"

* * *

Tee-hee, Thanks for Reading! This chapter was mostly on the Normandy (apart from the nightmare), hope you guys liked it. The next chapter is going to have some stuff from 'Sins of a Father' in it, but it's going back to the main story that Í was planning to writhe. If you want to know what that is, well you'd just have to keep reading xD.

*The name Laila accually means: Schoonheid van de Nacht where I come from. I've transilated into English to make it more understandable for you guys.


	5. The Citadel

**The Citadel**

_I was only mostly dead. Try to find that option on government paperwork... – Lynn Shepard_

"Who the hell are you two?" After only one look she knew Elias wasn't an easy talker. Since her childhood she had been studying body language. Everything about Elias was pointing towards the same thing, he was not planning to say anything useful. _Ugh, I hate interrogations_. She looked at Thane and slowly shook her head while he nodded in response, he understood her signal. They both started to walk towards the chair Elias was tied to. Thane stopped in front of the chair, Lynn behind it.

Elias moved his head into a very uncomfortable position so he could look at her while she answered his question, "My name's Shepard. I'm a Spectre." It was more of an threat than a introduction, Thane was well aware of that. But Elias obviously not, "Prove it." He snarled.

Lynn rolled her eyes while contemporaneously pulling her pistol and pressing it under Elias's chin. "I don't _have_ to prove anything. Spectres are above the law. We clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good," she moved her pistol away but still kept it in his eyesight, "Now, fortunately, I'm not after you. You contracted an assassin. Who's the target?"

"Joram Talid. He's running for office. He lives in the 800 blocks."

"Thanks," she putted her gun away and she and Thane started on their walk back to Bailey. "You won't see us again. No offense, but you're a problem below my pay grade."

Thane looked at her from his eye corner, "That may go down in history as the shortest interrogation ever."

She had a grin on her face, "Probably for the best, there is the advocate." The lawyer dashed through the hallway, she tried to step aside but he bumped right into her making her fall. Right before she hit the ground she felt two strong hands on her shoulders, pulling her back up. "Thanks Thane," Lynn said as he put her in front of him, "That wouldn't be good for my career you know, knocked down by an politicia--" she suddenly became aware of how close he was. His hands were still on her shoulders, she could feel his cool skin through the leather plates. He looked deeply in her eyes as she did the same. She could feel his breath on her lips. Was he moving closer? Was she? His lips where just a few inches away.

"What's the story? Why did Kelham hire the boy?"

In a shock they broke apart. Lynn quickly turned around to face Bailey, "Assassination" she answered as she rubbed the back of her neck, "A turian named Joram Talid. You know him?"

"Joram? Yeah. You might have seen his posters around. He's promising to end organized crime on the ward." He hessitated, "Thing is, his message is all mixed up in race politics. He's anti-human."

_Of course... I have spent two years dead and suddenly half of the galaxy is anti-human. _"We need to stop this assassination. Can you get us to the 800 blocks?"

Bailey nodded and looked past Thane to a woman from C-Sec, "Sergeant! Get a patrol car. These two need to get to the 800 blocks."

"Yes sir!" she responded with an salute.

* * *

Across the hall Talid and his bodyguard where talking to another turian. "There he is. How do you want to play this?"

"Do what you do best, follow Talid. Tell me what he's doing." He looked at her, "The krogan bodyguard will make him easy to follow."

"You want me to spy on him, how thoughtful." She had a half smile on her face, "Where will you be?"

"The darkest corner with the best view."

* * *

He looked at Thane, "This-- This is a joke. Now? Now you show up?" Without much effort Lynn had followed Talid, keeping Thane updated with his locations. There had been only one obstacle in her way, a young man who was standing in one of the path's she had to pass through. When she had mumbled something about vermin reports he'd let her pass. But even this little arrear was enough to be too late. By the time she had Talid back in sight she saw a young drell walking towards him and his bodyguard, armed. "Kolyat!" she had yelled, making the three figures look at her. It gave Talid enough time to escape into his apartment, his bodyguard was less lucky and got shot by Kolyat who followed Talid into his apartment as soon as the krogan was down. She had jumped of the balcony she was standing on, landing as safely as she could with some help from her biotics, but it didn't prevent her from twisting her ankle. Paying no attention to the pain she had ran towards the apartment. She felt Thane running behind her. Well was not that she _felt_ him, he hadn't touch her after all, but she just knew he was there. But now Talid was held under shot by Kolyat, who was held under shot by her.

Talid had finally found the nerves to say something "Help me drell. I'll do whatever you want."

"C-Sec. Put the gun down, son." _And Captain Bailey has joined the party..._

"Get out of my way. I'm walking out. He's coming with me."

Thane stepped forward, "They'll have snipers outside." Kolyat didn't listen, he was still young and stupid, he didn't want to listen to his father. Lynn looked across the room and suddenly became aware of the well placed lamp just right of Kolyat's head. She pulled the trigger, releasing one bullet right into it. Kolyat startled, "What the hell?" as fast as she could, leaning on one leg, she moved forward and gave Kolyat a punch in his face. Nothing serious, it wasn't a punch to hurt him, just to distract him. It worked. Talid _(he moved way better without a gun in his neck)_ stood up, looking at her like she was the first human he'd ever seen. _Ironic, he gets saved by the one race he hates._ She rolled her eyes, "Talid, were are you waiting for? Get the hell out of here."

"Yeah. Yeah! I will." He answered as he stumbled to the door, he looked like he was going to puke.

Bailey seized the moment "Take the boy into custody." he looked at the officer on his left, who was eager to obey.

"You son of a bitch!"

Lynn turned around so fast that she actually got dizzy, but she didn't pay attention to it. "Be glad you still have family!" She raised her voice, just a bit. Most people wouldn't even have noticed it but she never raised her voice like that. It almost scared herself, maybe the whole family stuff was getting a bit closer than she was willing to admit. She continued on a softer tone, "Your father doesn't have much time left, Kolyat. He's trying to make up for his mistakes."

"What? So you came to get my forgiveness? So you can die in peace or something." His voice sounded disdainful. It took her every bit of self control to keep her mouth shut. Thane walked towards Kolyat while he spoke, "I came to grant you peace." He paused, "You're angry because I wasn't there when your mother died."

"You weren't there when she was alive." He looked at Thane the same way she had looked at her batarian enemies, so many years ago, she felt sorry for him. Kolyat continued, "Why should you be there when she died?"

"Your mother," Thane looked at his feet, he was ashamed of his self. "They killed her..." He couldn't even tell his son what happened to his mother. "They killed her to get to me." Finally he looked Kolyat in the eyes, "It was my fault."

Lynn had already suspected something like this. Thane had told her about his wife, but never why she died. She knew the batarian mercenary's had something to do with it, so she puzzled something out herself. But hearing it from him was... different. Kolyat hadn't expected this at all, his voice was nothing more than a weak whisper when he asked "What?"

Thane continued, he had to tell Kolyat the whole story or else he would never tell it at all, "After her body was given to the deep, I went to find them. The trigger men. The ringleaders. I hurt them. Eventually killed them." He continued his story, looking more to the ground than to his son, "When I went back to see you, you were-- older. I should have stayed with you."

"I guess it's too bad for me you waited so long, huh?"

"Kolyat." He looked his son in the eyes. "I've taken many things out of the world. But you're the only good thing I ever added to it." She saw tears forming in Kolyat's eyes, he finally get's it. Bailey thought the same, "This isn't a conversation you should have in front of strangers." He turned his head to the C-Sec officers at the door, "Boys, take Kolyat and his father back to the precinct. Give them a room and as much time as they need."

"Why are you helping him?"

He looked like she'd just slapped him in the face, "He's not the only father who has messed up raising his son." He looked back at the father and son with a weak smile on his face, "I have to get back to the precinct. Come on I'll give you a lift."

* * *

"The kid wants to make a difference. Give him community service." Thane looked up at the sound of the voice that was getting so familiar to him lately. Lynn was on the other side of the room, leaning on Bailey's desk while talking to him. He smiled, he knew she was trying to get Kolyat away from a life in prison. Sadly he knew that the chances that the court would let him walk were very close to zero.

Apparently Bailey thought the same thing, "Community service for attempted murder?" he raised an eyebrow at her, "What jury would agree to that?"

"None that I've seen. This would need to stay out of the judiciary. Strictly within C-Sec."

"Interesting." He stood up as he saw Thane walking towards them. "I'll think about it."

* * *

Lynn and Garrus had walked off while he had been talking to the Captain. It didn't took him long to find them again though, Lynn was standing against the wall just outside C-Sec. Apparently in a disagreement with Garrus. Not the kind they had on the Normandy though, where a 'disagreement' usually involved throwing a lot of chairs against each other. No, this was the talking kind off an disagreement.

"You can't just go wondering off by yourself. You're wounded!" he closed his eyes "Lynn, At least take the damn Medi-gel."

"I'm fine! I just twisted my ankle!"

"Well, the dark-red stain on your leg seems to disagree." Garrus hesitated, he looked past Lynn to Thane, "Human blood is red, right?" Thane's face hardened, just for a second, nobody had noticed it. He nodded as he looked towards Lynn. From above her right ankle to her foot, the dark green color of her uniform had changed into the dark red color of human blood. "Lynn, you're injured."

"It's just a scratch, I can't even fee-" she was interrupted by the incoming call on their earpieces.

"Garrus? You're hearing me?"

"Yes, Joker what's wrong?"

"We need you back on the ship there is something wrong wit-"

"Can it wait for a bit? I'm kinda busy right now."

"Well I suppose so, I can always ask Miranda to do the calibrations."

"What?!" Garrus let out a tortured sigh, "I'll be right there."

He looked back to Thane, "Stay with Lynn. If anything happens to her, I _will _kill you." He walked back towards the Normandy while muttering his colorful opinion about stubborn humans. "Well," Lynn said as soon as Garrus had disappeared behind one of the doors to the docking bay. "I'd better be going." She slightly limped towards the crowd in front of them. _Is the Zakera Ward always this crowded? Two years change a lot._ "Haven't you heard what Garrus said?" It didn't took him much effort to keep up with her, she wasn't moving fast after all.

"Ah, don't worry," Lynn answered, she tried to move faster but not without pain. He could see it on her face, even if she tried to hide it, "You can take him."

"It's not I who I'm worried about."

"Well, I can take him too."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know," She grinned at him, "but where I'm going is perfectly safe. Promised." They walked in silence for some time, but he didn't like to see her in pain. When she rested against a wall he asked, "Why didn't you take the Medi-gel?"

"I had already tried the Medi-gel thing, didn't work."

After an hour of walking she stopped in front one of the buildings. "This is it. You can either come with me or stay outside," when she saw he was not planning to stay outside she continued, "Okay, you can come in. But if I say so you have to leave, immediately."

"Of course." He answered as they walked in.

"I need to confiscate your weapons." Thane looked at the man who had spoken. The last person who said that to Lynn ended up confiscating a bullet in his head. The man looked at her, surprisingly he smiled. "Oh, Shepard. Didn't thought you'd stop by."

"I was in the neighborhood." She smiled back, "How is she?"

"She is surely making progress, but I'd doubt she can live entirely on her own within the next three years. She's still having nightmares, but I don't think that will ever go away. She had been through a lot." There was a moment of silence before the man spoke again, "You can give your weapons to Delia, she's in her office.

"Thanks Adam, it was good to see you again."

"You come here often?" Thane asked when they walked to the office. She nodded, "I used to go every time when I was on the Citadel, but that was two years ago. I've only been here once since... well you know." They stopped talking when she knocked on the door.

"It's open."

"I've been told you would watch over my weapons while I'm in." Lynn smiled as they walked in, He closed the door behind them.

"Shepard! I haven't seen you in-- what-- two years? Where have you been?."

"Well, you know... I've... rested... mostly..."

"You where sick?"

"Something like that."

"What kind of sickness?"

"The deadly kind," Delia took a few steps back at her blunt answer so Lynn quickly added, "I'm sorry, Delia but I prefer not to talk about it." Delia nodded a few times to let her know she understood. "Now, your weapons please?" she asked while looking at her and Thane, she obviously hadn't noticed him before even though he was standing just besides Lynn. "I see you have brought someone along."

"Oh, yes. Delia this is Thane he-- ehm... works with me."

He saw Delia was about to ask more questions but Lynn stopped her from that by putting her shotgun on the desk, just a bit harder than needed. Next to the gun she placed her sniper rifle and submachine gun, Thane did the same. When the guns where on the desk, Lynn began to pull a numerous amount of slim daggers from between the plates of her suit and lay them on the desk. He hadn't even know she had daggers, they were well camouflaged between the leather plates in her outfit. Which was quite surprising, assuming how tight the suit was. After she had pulled about two dozens of daggers out of the uniform she looked at him. He knew she assumed he hadn't gave all his weapons He also knew she was right. So he pulled out some knifes from the inside of his jacket and a very thin, but very sharp one he hide in his sleeve. He heard Lynn chuckling next to him as she pulled a knife which looked a awful lot like his from each of her sleeves. After a few minutes, the whole desk was filled with their weapons. He had one pistol left in his jacket but a hand on his arm prevented it from taking it out. He looked to the side and saw Lynn, almost unnoticeable shaking her head, but it was enough for him. She had removed her hand, but his skin was still warm from her touch.

Delia raised her eyebrows while looking from the pile of weapons on her desk to the two figures that were standing in front of it, Lynn still wore her pistol on her upper leg, just like she always did, and she doubted that the drell had given away all of his weapons but if Lynn trusted him, so could they. "You two are a strange couple." She said while shaking her head. When she looked back to them she saw the two both looking at her with the same sort-of-smile on their faces.

* * *

"Okay here it is," she looked at Thane, "Don't speak unless I say you can. And leave if she's not responding good on your presence." He nodded and she opened the door with the key Delia gave her. "Talitha?"

"Lynn!" A young woman walked towards her, giving her a hug. "How are you? What are you doing here? You want some tea?" Talitha looked at Thane, luckily she didn't seem too afraid. "Who is that?

Lynn smiled at the storm of questions, and answered them one by one, "I'm fine and I actually wanted to ask you something." She pointed at Thane, "This is Thane, he is a friend of mine." He stepped forward and nodded to her, "And we would love some tea."

When the girl walked off to get the tea, Lynn whispered to him "I don't think she see you as a threat, you can stay but don't ask her questions, she is not very good with strangers."

"Who is she?"

"A girl I saved two years ago. She was traumatised after years as a captive to batarian slavers, and threatened to kill herself. They had asked me to talk her out of it." Thane nodded, he heard Talitha coming out of the kitchen and there was no time to say anything back to Lynn.

"I have you tea," the girl looked at him, "I don't know if you can drink tea but I brought you anyway."

"Thank you." He answered.

Talitha and Lynn sat down on the couch, because there were no other chairs Thane remained standing near the door.

"So what did you want to as--" Talitha looked down to the ground, the white carpet was slightly red were Lynn had walked, "This is... blood..." Thane saw fear in the woman's eyes as she looked up to Lynn, "You're wounded."

Lynn looked at her leg and the ground behind her before facing Talitha again "I'm sorry Tal, I didn't mean to upset you. It's nothing really. It looks worse than it is."

"Oh... ok..." she took a deep breath, "What did you want to ask me?"

"I need to ask you about the men who caught you. But if you don't want to answer my questions you don't have to."

The woman closed her eyes "I--I--I'll try to answer your questions."

"Thank you, this means a lot to me." He saw Lynn smiling weakly.

"But-- I only can tell you, he needs to leave." She pointed at Thane, who nodded. "I'll wait outside."

* * *

About half an hour later she came out of the room. Her face was pale and she was limping even more than before, but she still looked at him with the half smile on her face. As she limped towards him he saw that she left deep red footprints on the ground. Quickly, before she could object he walked towards her and putted her right arm around his shoulders, so he could support her while walking. First she looked surprised but then she smiled at him, finally accepting some help. That and she actually liked the feeling of his cool skin against hers, just as he enjoyed the warmth of hers.

After they had their weapons back they slowly walked back to the Normandy, he noticed that she was leaning even heavier on him every minute. It didn't bother him though, she wasn't heavy after all. "Thanks, Thane." He looked up from his thoughts to see her smiling at him, he smiled back, a real smile not the half ones she was so used to see.

"No I have to thank you, you brought me together with my son."

"Maybe, but will you do me a favor?"

"You don't have to ask."

She smiled again, "Don't tell anyone where we have been, or with who I've talked." The corner of his mouth curled up, when he responded.

"Of course, _Siha_"

* * *

I hope you guys have enjoyed this chapter! It got a bit longer than expected, I hope you don't mind n,n. Next chapter coming out soon... I'll hope, still got school and stuff but it will be updated somewhere in next week, or this week if I'm suddenly very inspired xD. Oh, and I really liked the reviews some of you wrote, this is only the second story I've wrote so I'm glad you like it! It makes me wanna write even more ;)


	6. Life Serial

**Life Serial**

_Are you naturally this bitchy, or is it just me? - Lynn Shepard about Miranda Lawson_

"Are you familiar with the term anti-human?" the batarian bartender froze, just like the human male he had served one of his drinks. A human woman took the drink out of the hands of the man, "Rule number one, never take drinks from a batarian." As she sat down she continued "You know, I've been talking to a couple of men around here." she turned the glass upside down, when the liquid came in contact with the bar it made a hissing sound. "They say you are poisoning the human customers in Afterlife. Can't image that's good for business."

While the woman was studying the liquid, which was burning its way through the table. He slowly moved his hand under the bar in search for his gun. "I have a shotgun" he looked up, the woman's eyes were still focused on the drink. "Bet I can draw it faster than you can get that pistol?" When he putted both hands back on the table the woman smiled and stood up, "I'm afraid I have to take you into custody."

"You can't do that! You have no rights nor evidence!"

"Finally found your tongue?" she tilted her head "I have a large hole in a bar, two witnesses which are all things I actually don't need because I'm already a Spectre-- Oh, and most of all I _really_ dislike batarians." When she said that she grabbed his arm, pulling him over the bar.

"Aria will never allow thi--"

She raised her eyebrows at him "_Aria_, is the one who gave me permission to do this." She announced, grabbed him by the shirt. "Now, if you ever wanna see daylight again..." She threw him out of the club and into one of the many back alleys from Omega. "You're gonna tell me something."

* * *

**8 hours earlier**

"I can't see how you have managed to walk around for over three hours, with your _bones_ sticking through your _skin_." Chakwas pulled the bandages a bit harder than needed.

"It was just one bone, you'd said it yourself." Lynn grinned, "And I knew you could fix it in a couple of hours."

"Just one bone... Just one bone... You wouldn't say that if that was your neck." The doctor sighed, "But you're right, thanks to the implants, you can walk on it in three hours. It's fully healed in five."

"If it was my neck I don't think I would ever say anything at all."

"You're such a downer."

She smirked "Funny, Joker said the same thing this morning." They both looked up when the door opened. Miranda walked in with the same ice-queen look on her face as she always had. "Commander, I have given EDI orders to set course to Omega. Jacob and I need to report to the Illusive man and since you thought it would be necessary to injure yourself during unneeded missions, you and your crew are grounded for the next three days." She saw that Lynn wanted to object but quickly brought her to silence, "The doctor had informed me that it would take at least three days for you to be fully recovered. We've no use to you when you need to hop around the battlefield on one leg."

With played disappointment Lynn spoke "I supposed you're right..."

"Good." Miranda had a half smile on her face, she was quite fond of herself "ETA in six hours. I will personally see to it that the Normandy can't leave Omega while we're gone. After that Jacob and I leave for Cerberus."

When she had left Lynn gave Chakwas a questioning look, "Three days?" she asked while tilting her head. Chakwas gave her a smile "I thought I heard you say you needed some time off. The whole ship thinks you're out for three days. See it as an repayment for that ice brandy you'd gave me."

She smiled back, "As long as you still pay for the second."

**

* * *

****ETA: 3 hour****s**

"Shepard? What are you doing here?"

She turned around in her chair to look to the person talking to her "You know Garrus, except from being a commander I'm also a human. And a human needs to sleep."

He had a surprised look on his face, well for a turian it wasn't very different from his regular face. But he thought she could see the little difference "Doesn't sleeping involve, you know... laying down an closing your eyes or something?"

Lynn shook her head "Nope, sleeping involves resting which is -compared to my life- sitting in this chair. _And_ sleeping involves getting more energy" She held up her coffee mug, "and this is the energy part."

He shook his head "I still think you need to get some real sleep." After he took some of his 'weird looking' food from the refrigerator he sat down on the opposite side of the table.

"Can't." She shrugged "If I need to sleep, I need to go upstairs to my cabin and well-- I'm not such of a hopping-around-on-one-leg-without-falling person. And my cabin has stairs, they're not a big but big enough for me to decide _not_ to go there."

"So you're trapped in the Crew Quarters for the next three days?"

"Yup" she took a sip from the mug.

"Is your coffee always green?"

Lynn tilted her head "I'd never said this was coffee. I don't even like coffee, this is energy drink." She raised her eyebrows as she looked in the mug "Well, I call it that. Chakwas makes it for me, apparently with two cups of this you don't even need to sleep."

"And it works?"

"Yup"

* * *

**ETA: less than a hour**

"I'll never stab you in the back, Shepard. Worriers like us," he pointed to his eyes and then to Lynn's, "straight to the face."

Kelly looked a bit stunned from her Commander to Grunt who was walking back to the elevator.

"See Kelly?" Lynn said when Grunt was out of earshot "He may kill me, but I'll be warned about it first."

She looked back at the woman "Well Commander, that is... Errr... Reassuring? I don't know. Jack threatens you, Grunt threatens you. It's not really safe in the crew."

"The only reason that they don't kill each other or someone else is that I'm here." Lynn looked her in the eyes "I can deal with them both if needed and they know it." Kelly let out a loud sigh and walked back to her desk on CIC "If I were you I would ask someone to bring me to my room." She said before entering the elevator

"I don't _need_ any help. I just _love _sitting here without anyone bothering me about filing mission reports." She shrugged and pressed the button to CIC. What she couldn't see was that Lynn, after she made sure no one was watching her, walked back to her cabin.

"We've arrived on Omega, commander."

She looked up to the hologram "Thanks, EDI."

* * *

"Mr. Moreau, Commander Shepard is missing."

He raised his eyebrows as he looked to the hologram, "Missing how? She can't even walk. The way she looked like when she came in even I could beat her if we were running labs."

"I have scanned the whole ship, the Commander is not here." Joker rechecked the settings and scanned the ship again. No results.

"But you've camera's everywhere, can't you even tell when or how she left the ship?"

"That information is not available."

"Great." He looked around and pressed the mute button.

"We're ready to leave, Lieutenant Moreau. Where is the Commander?"

He grinned at Miranda "The Commanding Officer has quit the ship."

If looks could kill, Joker would be dead. "What?!" Miranda snapped at him. "How do you mean _quit_ the ship? No one can leave without my permission, or with a broken leg for that matters."

His smile got even wider. Pissing Miranda off, best thing in the world. "Don't know, neither does that thing over there. It isn't the smartest AI in the world, if you thought that. Can't even locate _one_ Commander."

Miranda pressed the mute button, again so the hologram popped up. "EDI activate the tracking systems inside the commanders armor."

"The suit and her armor are located inside the Commander's cabin."

Joker's eyes went big. "You've placed tracking systems in Lynn's armor?"

"Off course," She turned her head to him with the famous ice-queen look on her face "I don't let investments over 4 _billion_ credits walk around freely."

"She's a _person_ not an invest--" He was interrupted by EDI. "Tracking systems inside Commander Shepard's weapons are disabled."

Miranda let out a growl of frustration, "Where is that bloody doctor?"

"You gave her permission to leave the ship 17.2 minutes ago. She left with Tali'Zorah vas Neema exactly 6 minutes after that."

"Damnit" Miranda screamed "Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!"

"Is everything alright here?" No one had noticed Kelly coming into the cockpit when she did. Miranda looked angrily at the new victim of her frustrations. "Everything is just fine Miss Chambers. Now get out of here before I kick your bloody ass!"

Kelly didn't move a bit, she just stood there smiling. Something that was not good for Miranda's self-esteem "WHAT!?" she yelled.

"Miranda, you have an incoming call from the Illusive man. Something about a losing his investment? He doesn't sound pleased." For the first time since he'd saw her Miranda actually looked scared. It didn't last long though. A few moments later she was already barking commands "EDI, lock every exit on the ship, no one may leave before I say so." After another furious look through the cockpit she began to make her way to the Comm room.

Joker shook his head "So why are you _really_ here?" he asked when he looked back at Kelly.

She shrugged "I thought we needed to locate Commander."

"Good luck with that, Tali disabled the tracking systems inside her weapons." he typed something on the orange screen on front of him "Besides that, Lynn can take care of herself."

"I don't doubt that. But I think she's going to do stupid things if she's on her own."

"You sound like my mom" Joker rolled his eyes "The woman is 29, even death didn't stop her. I know her longer than you do, and even with all your shrink powers-- Well, I just know she doesn't take risks when it comes to the mission. She knows we need her to stop the reapers."

"Then why would she leave?"

Joker opened his mouth, but a deep voice from behind them answered the question for him "To close up her past."

* * *

**10 hours before Omega, The Citadel, Talitha's apartment**

"_The Alliance marines that took you to the Citadel. They had raided the encampment, killed the batarians and freed you and the people who were left, right?" She nodded in response, "I need to know if there were others."_

_The woman closed her eyes, as to remember it better. While taking a deep breath she began to talk. "A few days before the raid-- The masters, were fighting. They're always fighting. She-- I can't hear what they are saying. But I kno-- knew they were fighting over us. It was always like that, they were arguing about who could take which 'animal'." She started shaking. "Some ani-- Some of us where taken away. I've never seen them back."_

"_Did you know where they took them?"_

"_Noo-- No-- the masters they will find me if she stays here," The girl covered her eyes "they will kill her."_

"_Talitha, listen." She said, trying to calm her down, "You're in the Citadel, they can't hurt you here. I promise," she smiled to the younger woman, as to give her the courage "I need to know where they took the rest of you."_

_She opened her eyes, her voice was suddenly suspecticly calm "They-- I don't know. They talked about a man-- Forvan. He knows."_

"_I know that name..." her eyes widened "Did they said where he was?"_

"_No... They-- Omega, he's-- he is on Omega."_

* * *

Miranda walked back to the bridge, "I'm getting a hell of a headache this way" She sighed. "Miss Chambers, I need to talk to the whole crew. Tell them to meet me in my office. Maybe someone has an idea where the commander is."

"I don't think it's possible to collect the _whole_ crew, Miss Lawson."

She looked at the yeoman. "Why the bloody hell not?"

Joker turned his chair around with a smile on his face like a child who just got the best Christmas gift ever "Thane has quit the ship." While he said that his smile got even wider.

* * *

So.. Chapter 6, Hurrah! Finally. It's not the best chapter I've wrote I'll admit that, but I still hope you guys like it. Next chapter is going to be better, but this one wouldn't work out quite the way I wanted. I've rewrote it over six times xD. Maybe I'm too critical... Anyway: Thanks for reading! Thanks for the reviews and Next chapter coming soon... =)


	7. Lost in the Woods

**Author's notes: **I'm so sorry for having you guys wait so long for the next update! All stories I've been working on were a bit delayed. Apparently some unseen force was keeping me form uploading them. (this unseen force being my cat who'd knocked over a glass off water, letting me deal with a very wet and very broken laptop). After I got my laptop back (sadly I lost all story's who were saved on the hard drive) I got a bit of a writer's block, and started writhing some other story's... But I'm back now and As you can see I've finally uploaded the next chapter. And now I'm going to celebrate my 2.000 hits on this story, the 5 favs, the 17 alerts and of course the 8 reviews! Thanks for liking my story so much, you guys are awesome!! I just love to write more and more ^^. So, this was my random happiness... Enjoy the chapter! More coming up soon!

**Disclaimer: ** I own nothing, though I desperately want to own Thane xD.

* * *

**Lost in the Woods**

_The Batarians are about to find out what happens when you piss me off! – Lynn Shepard _

"You're gonna tell me something."

"Siha..."

"Thane?" she turned her head to him, "if you're here to escort me back to the ship, let me save you the effort. I'm not coming with you."

He nodded while gazing over to the bartender, who'd desperately tried to get away from Lynn. But before he'd even took three steps a blue-sparkling carte tackled him to the ground. "You'd better not try that again, Forvan. Or the next one is going to be a lot heavier, a lot faster, a lot harder and against your head." The batarian sat up but didn't move a single finger after that.

"More vengeance is not going to make you feel better, siha."

Apparently Forvan completely agreed with this "Yes, if I were you I would listen to my boyfriend over there. Killing me wouldn't solve anything. Right?" he looked from Lynn to Thane and back, "Right?!" he asked again with a raspy voice.

Lynn raised her eyebrows "he's not my boyfriend--"

"But he ca--"

"You should listen to her, batarian."

"What? You all hate batarians now? You aliens are all racis--" another crate hit his nose forcing him to the ground once more "But I only--" the next crate raised up in the air "Okay, Okay! I'll tell you already." Lynn smiled while she putted the crate back on the ground.

* * *

"So why _are_ you here?" they had bought tickets for a flight to earth. _How ironic, the human slavers live on the human home planet. _If everything turned out alright they would arrive in ten hours. From the station they needed to go into one of the Latvian forest's to find the slave drivers.

"I've always wanted to see earth."

"Very funny, but you know that's not what I meant" there came no answer.

* * *

"Siha, are you sure this is the right way? "

"Yes!" She answered bluntly after tripping over another branch inside the forest. They had been walking for several hours and, although she would never admit it, somewhere she knew they had already passed through this part several times before. Knowing this only made her more and more angry "And why the hell do you call me that?! I don't even know what it means."

"I don't think this is a good time to explain it to you."

She stopped in front of him "WHY NO--" A bullet interrupted her sudden shouting and made them draw their weapons. A few batarians ducked back into cover around the clearing they were standing. Lynn shot one of them with deadly precision. When he fell down he didn't stood up again. "See?" she told Thane with a grin on her face, "I told you we were going the right way."

* * *

"How can this happen?!" Miranda brought her fists down on the table inside the communication room. "I told her she couldn't go." She turned around to face doctor Chakwas, "And **you** told me that she wouldn't be up yet!"

The doctor tried hard to fake innocence, but she couldn't really hide her smile. "I'm terribly sorry Miss Lawson. I'm afraid I misread the results of her tests."

The Cerberus operative let out a groan. The whole crew had gathered inside the room, Jacob was pulling up some records on Shepard and Krios while Grunt and Zaeed were doing some kind of staring contest. Tali, Garrus, Chakwas, Kelly and of course Joker were standing in a corner, all of them were desperately trying to hide their laughs. Jack on the other hand did nothing to hide her fun, she was almost rolling over the floor while laughing at Miranda.

"Miranda, I've found something."

"Speak up, Jacob."

"I've pulled up some of the older Alliance records--"

"Those are classified." Joker noticed

"Not anymore." Joker rolled his eyes at Jacob but let him continue without further interruptions, "Like I said I've pulled up some older records on Shepard." He handed Miranda the data-pad, "It seems like there were quite a few unsolved crimes with her as main suspect. Nothing really bad though," He quickly said when all eyes on the room pointed towards him. "A few years ago a entire batarian criminal cell was cleaned out."

"Why would Shepard kill all those people?" Kelly wondered out loud.

Jacob shrugged, "Probably because they and two other cells, were the main suspects for the raid on Mindoir. The Alliance never found out enough to lock them up but in one week all members of the cell ended up dead. The last group was brutally murdered inside an Hotel. No one had heard or seen a thing."

"If there were no witnesses why do they suspect Shepard?"

Jacob looked back at the files "She was the only survivor, so she had a motive. Besides that she disappeared from the mental institution a week before the killing started and reappeared a week later. She didn't had an alibi, and wouldn't tell anyone where she had been."

"Wait... Shepard was in a Mental institution?" Tali asked in surprise.

This time Joker answered "She was traumatized by losing everyone she knew. Her record said that they had made her look while they killed her parents..." He looked back to Miranda, "I've read this in her file when we were still Alliance, but the thing about the killing wasn't in there."

"Of course, after Akuze she was such a hero, the records were sealed and put away."

"You can't blame them. Even if she has killed all those batarians, it was more like community service. The Alliance was just relieved to see the problem was dealt with without too many political errors." Everyone looked at Garrus, who looked uncomfortable with all of the attention. "What? When I was with C-sec I've read all those files."

Miranda raised her eyebrow. "If you knew this why haven't you told us?"

"You didn't ask." Garrus grinned.

"How are we supposed to ask something like that. Is it something like 'Hey, Garrus. Do you know if the Commander has killed over fifty batarians a few years ago? If not well, I was just guessing so don't pay attention to it.' No **that** would really work." Joker remarked sarcastically.

"I'm glad you've finally decided to be reasonable and chose Cerberus's side in this, Mr. Moreau."

"Wo-Wow! Wait a sec! I didn't chose your side, I'm with Shepard on this. I just wanted to say something sarcastic once in a while... and I **do not** support Cerberus. I'm just here because you are the only people who let me fly! And for the free drinks." Miranda rolled her eyes at his response.

* * *

Lynn and Thane had won the fight quite easily. Even with their lack of cover they had managed to take care of all slavers without taking any serious injuries on their side. Much to their relief one of them was carrying a map of the area, including the location of their base.

"I do not think it would be wise to sneak into their base during the day."

Lynn nodded "I agree let's set up camp, we can sleep and eat something before we leave. I think it would be best if we wait until five hours after sunset."

* * *

On board of the Normandy the discussion was getting even worse. It wasn't even clear who said what, the whole comm room was filled with yelling.

"Why does the cheerleader leads us now?!"

"Because I'm Shepard's second in command."

"Not that she had a choice in that! You were just assigned to that post!"

"Only because she likes you more doesn't mean you can get it."

"But why did she leave?!"

"Why did Thane go with her?"

"I think it's romantic."

"Shut up Miss Chambers!"

"We need to do something."

"She is going to cause trouble, no doubt."

"Why didn't you stop her?!"

"Ah, that's a great idea let the cripple catch Lynn."

"You could have done something!"

"I'm with Joker on this you could give her just a few days off when she asked you."

"Yeah, she helped you."

"Damn, she helped all of us!"

"This isn't some job you can leave to get on vacation!"

"She took a few days to help us."

"That was her choice!"

"Oh, and this wasn't?"

"How the hell did she escaped?"

"Who knows? She is a trained spy."

"How the hell do you get that idea Kelly?"

"It fits her profile perfectly. And she hides her past, remember the tournament?"

"She cheated!"

"You only say that because you lost!"

"How can someone cheat with hand to hand combat?"

"She has biotic powers!"

"But she didn't use them!"

"Why don't we just hire someone with Shepard's skills and track her down?" The whole room fell quiet and looked at Jacob, again.

* * *

Thane looked up by hearing a snapping twig. They had broke up the camp a few hours after sundown. Which wasn't very hard, they hadn't made a fire and used just one tent so one could sleep while the other one was on watch. After hearing the sound again Thane went to walk next to Lynn. "We are being followed." He said, lowering his voice to a whisper.

Lynn nodded without looking up. "For almost twenty minutes by now." She whispered back. He looked at her while she moved to his other side. "Keep walking." She whispered while disappearing into a tree. She climbed so fast he couldn't even see where she was before she sat in top of the tree. Nevertheless he walked further.

After a few minutes he heard a yelp from behind. While pulling his weapon he rushed back to the place he knew his Siha was. Thane couldn't help but smile when he saw a hooded female tied up on the ground with Lynn sitting next to her with her legs crossed.

"Hi Thane," she said giving him a rare smile, "Look" she pointed to the woman, "We have company."

He chuckled while putting his sniper away. "Now we just wait until we find the rest of them."

* * *

"And **this**, is exactly why I don't like earth."

Jacob raised his brows "Because every time you're here you need to find you Commanding officer who is trying to kill the rest of the people who killed her family and friends? And she is always somewhere in a forest where we are lost within without any sign of the tracker we've hired?"

"Yes that's exactly why. That and the walking though a forest part."

"What's wrong with a nice forest?" Miranda asked.

Garrus sighed "I'm sure it's great for you humans, but the trees are too close together. I keep getting stuck."

"Funny, I just was thinking about how I like to see you all alone and stuck between two trees in a forest. Waiting until the Earthen animals eat you." Tali remarked, she was still upset that he didn't told her what he knew about the commander.

"I told you I'm sorry. I just didn't though it would matter." She ignored him and kept walking. After a few minutes they heard Jack chuckle. "What?!" Miranda asked annoyed.

"Biotic, and a powerful one." She said pointing forward.

"You can _feel_ Lynn?" Jack nodded in response. "Okay, that's weird."

Jack's face showed a evil grin "Not really, powerful biotics can feel others with the same or more power as them. That's how Lynn found me inside that ship."

"**Hey!**"

Jack turned around, the grin still on her face "Oh, I'm sorry. Does the Cerberus Cheerleader feels left out? Maybe you're not as perfect as you think you are..." Surprisingly since the tournament when Lynn had kicked Miranda's ass Jack and Lynn had become pretty good friends. They were often annoying Miranda together or raiding the Cerberus supplies.

_I'll bet she just said that to annoy me. I'm the biotic here who holds the most power, except for Shepard but she's not here. No one can feel another biotic how powerful he or she is. _Miranda thought, but -much to her displease- when they had set only a few hundred steps in the way Jack had pointed out they heard a teasing voice coming out of an tree.

"So... finally done with walking in circles, Miranda?" Two figures jumped out of the tree, the biggest one was carrying their tracker.

Miranda messed up her face "Thane, Shepard." She greeted.

* * *

**End notes: **Sorry for the lack of Thane/Lynn action, next chapter I'll promise more. Or not, I don't know, I haven't really started yet so we'll see. Thanks for reading and remember, reviews are always welcome ;) Oh, and if you have found any mistakes that annoy you, please let me know so I can correct them.


	8. Sacrifice

**Au****thor's Notes: **My my, Still following this story? Thank you very much! I'm sorry for not posting for this extremely long time...but I had some troubles. Family problems and stuff...I'm guessing that you know how that feels, right? After that I failed my exams and now I have to wait another year before I can get into art school -,- And yes...I already had been accepted but now I have to apply again...So my life was kinda crap lately, but now I'm back! And I'm extremely happy about how this last chapter has worked out. But I won't keep you anymore, enjoy reading!

**Disclaimer: **Nope, I own nothing of the characters. Though I reserve the rights on my self-made-up story. Thank you imagination!

* * *

**Sacrifice**

Lynn blew the air out of her mouth as she gave one last glance in the direction of the quickly set up camp. It was a few hours after midnight, she had waited patiently until all of her crew members were asleep before sneaking away. Maybe it wasn't the best thing to do, seeing that a few of her people (for example; a certain Cerberus Officer) wouldn't be glad with her seeking away again. But maybe this was just something she had to do. Either way, it was a thing she had to do alone and nothing would stop her from doing so.

After double checking her weapons and thermal clips, she raised her walking tempo to a soundless jog. Which wasn't as easy as it sounded, seeing that she was currently in a forest. Nevertheless, she couldn't back down now.

**xXxXx**

The life of an assassin is one that will mark you for life. A good night sleep is a thing that will rarely occur, since you've trained yourself to wake at the slightest disturbance of the nightly sounds. This was exactly why Thane's eyes opened when he heard the silent footsteps of the woman he called _Siha_ passing his tent. The assassin didn't hesitate for a second before he grabbed his weapons and moved out of the tent as well.

Apparently she took great pains to make sure that no one would notice her. Thane, as the gentleman he was, made sure that she wouldn't notice that she _had_ been noticed. Apart from his _Siha_, she was also his commander and probably the only woman in the entire galaxy that stood a chance against the Collector threat. Even if only the first of these reasons was enough for him to follow her, the other two reasons would only back him up. The trouble that her impulsive decision would bring with it was something to face later.

He moved from shadow to shadow, making sure that he wouldn't make a sound while he did so. That even one snapping twig could alarm her, was a thing he was very well aware of and seeing that Lynn wasn't the most stable woman of the galaxy... Well, maybe it was better not to think about what could happen when she caught him shadowing her. A bullet through the head would probably wait for him, but this human woman was worth risking his life for. Maybe he hadn't known that when he took this suicide job in the first place, but he did know it now. He was even looking forward to the time after the mission. Lynn made them all believe that they truly stood a chance against the collectors. And that they had a chance to survive. But I digress...

You could say a lot of things about Thane, but he surely was a good tracker. You could also say a lot of things about Lynn, but she surely knew how she could avoid any tracker from finding her. It were only the subtitle things that made him able to find her, the slight silverish glow she left behind when the moonlight came in touch with her hair, the smell of the few broken blades of grass... It was not much but it was just enough.

The commander held her pace when she arrived at the large cave, Thane stayed on a safe distance. There was a look, right into his direction, which made him fear that he had been discovered. Listening to his training he stayed still, not even moving a single muscle. Much to his surprise it worked and the curious eyes of his _Siha_ focused back on the cave again before pulling out her pistols and entering the darkness.

This was the point when the waiting started, another thing Thane was very well aware of. He knew that if he would follow to close behind her, she would easily notice him. With that there came a bigger chance to be caught by the batarians she was planning to attack. But if he waited too long she could get herself in extreme danger. A thing she often seemed to do. The commander was a woman that had no need to look for trouble, even if she sometimes did. But if she didn't, trouble always seemed to find her. Maybe it was just bad luck.

Silent minutes went by, which - he decided - was a good thing. As long as there was silence, no bullets had been shot. Or at least no one had sounded the alarm. Finally the time came to enter the cave as well, being just as silent as he had been when he had followed her though the forest, of course.

**xXxXx**

A tortured sigh escaped her mouth as her right hand went up to her forehead. Things like this always managed to give her a terrible headache, but there was nothing she could do about it now. There were things she just had to live with and disappointment was one of them. The other being abandoned.

"What are you planning to do now?" Was a question that the deep alien voice had asked her. But for the first time, she truly had no idea.

What was she supposed to do? Scream? Fight? Act like nothing had ever happened? Or call in a fleet? All these options came in her mind, but were rejected almost as fast as they had entered her thoughts. She had several cards that she could play at the moment, none being as effective to all parties as she wanted. Or at least to _her_ party. Whatever she would decide, she had to lose something to gain the other. It was just how the world worked nowadays.

After letting out another sigh, she slowly stood up and loaded her gun. If someone would have said to her that she would be doing this a few days ago, she would have called him or her crazy. But well, didn't everyone call the people that went on this suicide mission crazy? She had to admit that only people who _were_ crazy, if only the slightest bit, were actually accepted on this mission. Including herself and all other crew members.

To be honest, could you think of one completely sane person on this mission? If you can that you're already a lot farther than we are. Or maybe you just don't know them as good as you think.

She rolled her head over her shoulder one last time before looking back. "Let's go." This were the only words that Cerberus Officer Miranda Lawson spoke to her other crew members.

**xXxXx**

The way through the cave had been an easy one, before entering she had managed to mute her weapons with the white sheets that Miranda and the crew had brought with them when they came to find her. If she had headed back now, she would find a large arrange of bodies. From the entrance of the cave to the center of it, the latter being the place where she was located this very moment.

The whole scene that was played in front of her eyes made her feel nauseous. Humans, hundreds of them were stuffed inside little rooms. Normally there would be about three persons that could fit in those rooms, but somehow the batarians had managed to drive that number up to ten. Don't ask how though, even Lynn wouldn't know that.

She was taking cover behind an exceptionally large rock, one that had been a good twenty feet away from the center of the cave, the place where the baratians had placed their improvised camp. Behind that she could see the cages of the slaves, too bad that these cages were located as far from the exit as possible. If she wanted to free anyone she should first go though every single one of those aliens. Not that the commander had a problem with this...

Of course, she could always just take the easy route, and move around the camp to the cages. Just to make sure who exactly where in there. Maybe there were still some people that she would recognize. People, humans from Mindoir.

A single terminal was the only thing the aliens had to keep the cages closed. If you are able to hack the terminal, it would be easy to open it. Too bad that Lynn had never been much of a technician. However, a single familiar face was able to convince her from the opposite. It was a face that looked a lot like the one she saw in the mirror every day.

Well, maybe it wasn't _exactly _the same, since she was able to take a shower everyday while this face clearly wasn't. But it matched close enough to make it sure to her. This woman, standing there pressed against the others was defiantly one of her sisters. Her _twin-_sister that was. Even if she looked a bit older than Lynn herself... But Lynn had been dead for two years, you don't age when you're not alive.

Hacking a terminal wasn't as hard as she had thought. To be honest, it looked more like an old-fashioned computer game to her, but then with a higher risk when you fail. Namely: the complete loss of your cover, a part of your family and possibly your life.

Two times. Two times she failed to override the system. But her third and final attempt was the one that succeeded. With a satisfied sound the cages opened, leaving free the surprised slaves.

But instead of running away, they stayed still. As if they were still kept in their cages by the metal doors. Lynn couldn't hide her surprise as she walked over to the closest cage, the batarians still hadn't noticed what was going on. The commander stood still in front of her sister, looking in the woman's dead eyes. She was alive...yes, but seemed completely unaware of her surroundings. And her freedom.

Lynn was about to say something when she heard it. The first sound that destroyed all her hope in one time. It was a sound made by her sister. A scream. She alarmed the batarians. Someone tried to free the animals.

She spun around, taking out one of the batarians with only her fist shot. But she immediately noticed that she was outnumbers. Fifty against one had never been a fair fight, and it surely wasn't going to change now either.

Or at least, that was what she thought what would happen. Much to her surprise, three of the aliens suddenly sank to the ground. But it was not her who had shot them. From out her cover, she saw a green skinned man ducking behind the large rock she had used for cover earlier. The man had a sniper, it was Thane. And she had never been happier to see him than she was right now.

Coming out of the improvised hallway, she saw the rest of her crew members. Much to her surprise she noticed that Miranda was the one in command. The woman had finally grown a heart...

This was Commander Lynn Sheapard's last thought before she felt a splitting pain entering her body from out her spine, shoulder high. A warm liquid began to run down to her lower back. Everything went black before her eyes, she felt the hard rocks beneath her.

Faith has a twisted sense of humor. She was shot at a moment like this, just after seeing a part of her family again. Just after she came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe they were able to win this fight. Just as she was as good as the only one that could save the galaxy from total destruction.

Well, at least she had died fighting.

**xXxXx**

Memories of the past, things that all came back now. At this moment. The screams of her dying parents, shot in front of her own eyes. The deep depression after that. The times that she had hurt herself in an attempt to ease the pain. Naturally, all of these things took no effect.

The once so cheerful child had turned into an emotionless killer, or maybe a overemotional killer. The latter was probably even worse. Without emotions, you wouldn't feel sorry for your victims. With too much emotions you would just feel everything at once, making everything even worse. Broken. That was the description that came in the minds of the ones that stood the closest to Commander Lynn Shepard.

Every action is driven by a reason. There are reasons why we fight. Some will fight for freedom, independence or to secure the safety of their children. But you'll have to ask yourself: why do _I_ fight? Every time that Lynn asked this question to herself, she could only think of one, single word: Vengeance.

Vengeance is a powerful thing. It can drive you, but also destroy you. You'll have to remember that these two things are very close to each other. As soon as you notice that it is vengeance what drives you, you will also notice that this same thing will destroy you. It's a reason why you will put up masks. A reason to hide from your true self. Or a reason to hide your true self, in an attempt to protect it from the evil that drives you. When there are no more masks, the protection will fade as well.

Without this protection from yourself, you will also lose the protection that you can grant others. You will not be able to protect as many people as you would want to. Or maybe you'll just get lost in your past. Living in the past is not a good thing. Especially not when your past is one large Nightmare. Nightmares have the cruelty to haunt you, if you're not lucky enough they will haunt you for the rest of your life, each night you will go to the same torture. Over and over again.

Protection is something you'll have to take care of yourself, or maybe you'll have others that will do that for you. Maybe it's a surrounding that protects you, like the massive body of the Citadel. But even these things can turn on you if you don't know exactly what it is. And what it's made of. I mean, who would have thought that the Citadel, once the galaxy's safest place, was also the place that when it's opened could cause the destruction of the world we now know.

Betrayal, destruction, vengeance, betrayal... All these things will follow after one other. Like a giant circle of life, each event will be the cause of the following one. Maybe you're lucky and you would not have to deal with any of these. But when you do, you'll notice that your life has become an everlasting circle. Life serial.

Maybe that's what we are, all lost in our own thoughts. Like when we're lost in the woods. There is no change to break out of it, unless pure luck will find you. It depends on how large the woods of your thoughts are. Maybe they are nothing but four trees, easily cut down if you compare it to a whole forest. Escaping a forest has always been harder than getting out of the square of four trees. You could walk into circles for as long as you live, never finding a way out.

Sacrifice. It's stupid to believe that all good things will just come to you. That you will never have to pay something in return. But eventually, you will come to the conclusion that nothing is comes without a price. These prices have to be paid, if only to keep up the balance of all things in the universe. And, if you would look at the facts, why not sacrifice a single life? If it's able to save hundreds of them?

Maybe dying like this wasn't as bad. She had saved enough lives, including that of hundreds of slaves and was sure that her Crew members would be able to win the fight. They were well trained, and loyal to the bone. Even Miranda, even if the Officer sometimes had a different way to show it. The crew could take the collector and reaper thread on their own. Like the Illusive man himself had said: They were the best of the best. Nothing could stop them. Not even the death of their commander. Maybe now was the time that she could finally rest in...

"_Shepard? Shepard?"_

"_Come on Commander, can you hear us?"_

"_Lynn! Wake up! Don't you dare dying on us now!"_

"_...Siha"_

* * *

**End Note's: **Hmmm... Like the cliff hanger? Let me know what you think! Reviews are like cookies to me...give me more! n,n

**Anyway I want to add one other thing for the people that took the time to place a review on my story ^^ Thank you guys I really appreciate it!**  
**Leah's-Other-Side** - Yay! You were the first one that wrote me a review in the time I have been posting at ! Yes, this was my first story and even if I don't know if you're still following it, I've really enjoyed your reviews!**  
****Leeirane** - Thank you for following this story form the start ^^ Yes, I really disliked Miranda at first, she always managed to piss me off in the game... Though in this last chapter I decided to give her some kind of hart, just for the heck of it xD  
**Maskedpainter** - I've laughed out load at your reviews! Thanks to you I've enjoyed writing this story even more.  
**Kiwibliss** - Thanks for your review and the comment about my English xD And yes, I always had wondered what would happen if these two had met before...So; here you have it!  
**IN3ctionNZ** - THANKS! ...don't know what else to say

**I also want to thank everyone who has placed this story in his or her favorites list ^^  
**DragonCurse4  
Flouder5  
Jeandark  
Scrollmouse  
Teriyaki Teriyaki

**Same for those who placed this in their alert list ^^**  
Amara Wil Fren  
Anb1388  
Animeawesome  
BloodLord Uzumaki  
Dazzleday  
Gabbywolf  
INf3ctioNZ  
Jeandark  
Kyuubi  
Leah's-Other-Side  
Leeirane  
Maskedpainter  
Ranma-tomoe  
Rinoax  
Scrollmouse  
Serphxheat  
Shadow fox91  
Sharem  
Wildmoonstar  
WitchWeaver  
Yaoi-gamer-fangirl

**THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY!**


End file.
